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Professional Directions

When students begins to think about making music the subject of their study at the university level, there is often a very narrow view of the possibilities offered by the music industry. While it is true that a large part of our students pursues study in performance, with the goal of becoming professional performers, it is also true that this is a field with great competition and that breaking into the elite of the profession is not easy. Fortunately, there are many different ways of using one's passion to craft a career in music that can be rewarding on several levels.

Our students teach in K-12 schools in a variety of situations, and have a deep impact on the lives of their students there. Music Therapists can be employed in settings ranging from schools, to hospitals, hospices, mental health facilities, prisons, clinic and private practice. The field is still expanding and the demand for good therapists is robust. Composition students most often pursue graduate studies after Pacific, but their interests go from classical music, to film and television and musical theatre. One of our graduates, Yoshi Onishi, recently won one of the most important international competitions in composition, the Gaudeamus Prize, in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Music History majors tend to pursue doctorates in graduate school, with a goal of teaching at the college level or of working in other scholarly environments. Our Music Management graduates occupy positions ranging from concert manager, to owners of recording studios and recording labels, to entrepreneurs building musical instruments, to executives in a variety of music industry roles. One of our most recent graduates is the personal assistant of a major Hollywood star! Some of our graduates pursue careers in other fields, such as Crystal B. a pianist who is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and works at a prestigious law firm in Los Angeles. No matter what our graduates choose to do in life, we like to think that we have prepared them to succeed!